Tedy Bruschi to ESPN, Debuts Thursday.

In one of the quickest transitions from the football field to TV, ESPN has announced that former Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi will join ESPN as an analyst. He’ll be on the regular network and he’ll also have a role on the new ESPN Boston site that launches next Monday. Look at the press release:

Three-time New England Patriots Super Bowl champion Tedy Bruschi is joining ESPN. The veteran linebacker, who just announced his retirement from pro football last week after 13 seasons, will provide NFL analysis on ESPNBoston.com – ESPN’s new local sports site, launching September 14 – and appear on NFL Live, SportsCenter, ESPN Radio and other ESPN platforms.

Bruschi, who played in five of the Patriots franchise’s six Super Bowl appearances, will offer his NFL insights and analysis in multiple contributions per week on ESPNBoston.com, ESPN’s new home for New England sports news and information, online video, and original and customized content. He will also offer analysis on ESPN, beginning this week when he debuts on NFL Live Thursday (4 p.m. and 12 a.m. ET) and Friday (4 p.m.) with host Trey Wingo and Darren Woodson.

As part of studio coverage leading into ESPN’s season-opening Monday Night Football doubleheader on Monday, Bruschi will be on-site at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., for SportsCenter and Monday Night Countdown before the Buffalo Bills-Patriots game. Also, Bruschi will attend ESPN’s MNF Chalk Talk Series event at the Hall at Patriot Place that morning (11:30 a.m.), and during halftime he will be recognized on the field as an honorary captain of the Patriots’ 50th Anniversary Team.

Bruschi played in 189 career regular season games (and 22 playoff games) during his 13-year career (1986-2008), all with the Patriots, who selected him in the third round of the 1996 NFL Draft. Captain of the New England defense for seven seasons, Bruschi helped lead the Pats to nine playoffs, eight division championships, five conference titles and three Super Bowl crowns (XXXVI, XXXVIII and XXXIX). He also helped guide the Patriots to the first undefeated 16-0 regular season record in NFL history in 2007. A 2004 Pro Bowl selection, Bruschi finished his career with 1,134 tackles, 30.5 sacks and 12 interceptions. He is the only player in NFL history to return four consecutive interceptions for touchdowns.

“Tedy Bruschi has embodied the Patriots and their unrivaled success the past decade, and we are thrilled that this three-time Super Bowl champion is joining our roster of NFL experts as well as ESPNBoston.com, which will give New England sports fans a stable of authentic and familiar Boston voices when it launches Monday,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production.

Bruschi added: “I’m very excited to be joining the ESPN team. I hope to bring my passion and knowledge for the game as an analyst just as I did as a player. I look forward to the national exposure of covering the entire league while also having the opportunity to stay close to my roots here with ESPNBoston.com.”

In addition to his relentless worth ethic and intensity on the field, Bruschi is equally as well known for his determination and professionalism off the field. After suffering a stroke in February 2005, Bruschi endured months of rehabilitation before he was medically cleared to play football and returned to the Patriots lineup in October. Bruschi was named the 2005 NFL Comeback Player of the Year, and the recipient of both the Ed Block Courage Award and the Maxwell Football Club’s Spirit Award.

Bruschi was named to NFL.com’s All-Interview Team for accessibility to the media, and he has been one of the Patriots most active players in the greater Boston community. When his retirement announcement was made, Patriots coach Bill Belichick called him “the perfect player,” and team owner Robert Kraft, citing “executive privilege,” promptly named him honorary defensive captain of the franchise’s 50th Anniversary Team.

Certainly Tedy impressed people when he made his retirement announcement last week at Gillette and supposedly, he was approached by ESPN right after he got off the podium. Judging from his TV ads, Tedy has the potential to be a very good analyst.

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About Ken Fang

A former award-winning radio reporter, Ken Fang lives in Rhode Island and blogs at Fang's Bites and Fang's Bites at BSMW. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook. In addition to sports media, he is addicted to The Amazing Race and Mad Men.

Rick Mc

Any word on what will happen to the local ESPN radio station?

Guntfather of Sports Radio

I was wondering about this as well. I don’t see any stations on the dial that fit a new ESPN affiliate’s needs.

Jason Coyote

What we know for certain is that 890 is moving to another frequency in order to increase their signal. Like I said on the other thread regarding ESPNBoston’s startup, if the management team over there had been a little more proactive (knowing that 890 had a weak signal) and sought out another station last year, the sports radio market in Boston might look a lot different right now.

I’ll take back my thoughts on Jessamy & friends if it comes to light that Bristol told them to wait on doing anything until they started these regionalized websites got off the ground.

Rick Mc

Jessamy is long gone from 890.

Are you certain that 890 is going to move? All I have read is that the affiliation is going to be on a stronger signal, not necessarily that 890 ownership and management will continue with ESPN radio.

http://www.jonvssports.blogspot.com Jon

Tom Jackson should ask him if he still hates Belichik. Then Tedy should replace Easterbrook’s “editor”. I’d pay to see both those scenarios.

Tony

You beat me to it.

I’m hoping that Mr. Bruschi gives Gregggggggg, Schlereth and Jackson a good piece of his mind when he encounters them all for the first time.

E!SPN lost all credibility that they had left when they took that minor infraction and turned it into Watergate, the NFL version.

Classless

Did ESPN and all their goons apologize to his face for calling him and his teammates cheaters?

http://www.jonvssports.blogspot.com Jon

You have a better chance of seeing Jeremy Jacobs touching a Stanley Cup.

cakes_are_cooking

Money, like politics, makes for strange bedfellows. With careeers and $ at stake, I’m sure they’ll all be best buddies.

Angry Old Bastard

not to dredge all that crap up again…..HOWEVER, if you remember back to those “spygate” days and the ESPN pudits saying it would “taint” the Patriots forever blah-blah-blah-…….just look at their fawning (well deserved) bio of Bruschi…not one mention of the infamous “spygate”….I still remember Peter King saying “spygate” would be in the 1st paragraph of Belichick’s obituary….PUH-LEESE…..dare I say it?……”Spygate” is for the most part, dead, buried and forgotten….befitting of the most blown out of proportion story in the history of sports media.

Tony

I remember that….”first line in his obituary” nonsense.

Well then, it should be the first line in Jimmy Johnson’s, who admitted to doing the same thing; and the first line in Mike Shanahan’s, who admitted to S.I. that his staff “has the other team’s signals figured out before halftime” of every game.

Ridiculous.

I still hope Bruschi verbally slams Schlereth, Easterbrook, et al, the first chance he gets (off camera, of course).

http://www.jonvssports.blogspot.com Jon

Our friends in Bristol will be going over Spygate 50 years fromm now, because it’s far easier that going over the massive discipline issues in the NFL, the farcical officiating in the NBA, the NHL’s persistent death wish, the MLB’s inability to deal with steroids, and the open cesspool that is “big time” college athletics. the good news is that now I know what it is like to be an Italian soccer fan. Minus the killing of opposing fans.